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- Some significant discrepancies between TAC and BUFR metadata are present for certain U.S. radiosonde stations. The metadata supplied for TAC reports come from a master station list maintained at FNMOC, while the metadata supplied in BUFR reports come from a master station list maintained at the NOAA Telecommunication Operations Center (TOC). The following stations had latitude or longitude discrepancies greater than 0.1 degrees, with values listed for latitude, longitude, and station elevation. The first three appear to be a result station moves away from airport locations that had not been updated at the TOC but had been updated in the WMO radiosonde list; the fourth appears to be uncertainty associated with U.S. military operations, but the FNMOC elevation seems to be more consistent with the reported radiosonde heights. In all four cases, the FNMOC master station list value listed as the TAC value appears to be correct; this problem was reported to the TOC help desk.
- 72274 (Tucson, Arizona, USA)
- TAC: 32.23°, 249.03°, 751m
- BUFR: 32.11°, 249.07°, 802m
- 72327 (Nashville, Tennessee, USA)
- TAC: 36.25°, 273.43°, 180m
- BUFR: 36.11°, 273.32°, 182m
- 72662 (Rapid City, South Dakota, USA)
- TAC: 44.07°, 256.79°, 1029m
- BUFR: 44.05°, 256.95°, 976m
- 74004 (Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, USA)
- TAC: 32.87°, 245.67°, 136m
- BUFR: 32.50°, 246.00°, missing (231m listed online at http://weather.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/nsd_lookup.pl (discontinued service)
- 72274 (Tucson, Arizona, USA)
- Metadata discrepancies also exist for non-U.S. radiosonde stations that are more difficult to reconcile. This will be the topic of a future post, along with discrepancies in station elevation which I have not yet examined.
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